Bollards, speed humps and more: Traffic-calming measures planned for Mount Royal

Montreal may be keeping the road over its iconic Mount Royal open this summer, but the city wants to make sure drivers who take popular shortcut through the park won't be going nearly as fast.

The city's executive committee revealed its plans on Wednesday to calm traffic on Camillien-Houde Way and Remembrance Road — a busy stretch of asphalt connecting the boroughs of Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and Plateau-Mont-Royal.

Rather than closing it to through traffic — a largely unpopular decision last summer — there will be measures in place such as speed humps, speed radar signs and narrower lanes that are divided by bollards and lined with planters.

While the plans have been drawn up, they may evolve as needed, said executive committee member Coun. Éric Alan Caldwell, who is responsible for urban planning and mobility.

"There will be a full monitoring of the effect of the measures," he promised. "We will be flexible to be able to adjust and constantly improve them depending on the results we will have. "

Other measures include:

• An alternating one-way section where the road narrows, controlled by traffic lights.
• Reducing Camillien-Houde Way to a single lane where it curves into Mont-Royal Avenue.
• Extending wait time at the traffic light at the intersection of Mont-Royal Avenue and Camillien-Houde Way.
• Increasing shoulder widths.
• Improving signs and road paint surrounding crosswalks and bus stops.

And the city says the Café suspendu, a temporary terrasse and café with coffee service and seating area, will return. It drew more than 6,000 people a day during a pilot project last summer.

The city says it is working to improve short-term safety while calming traffic in the long term.

U-turns will still be illegal, speed limits reduced and the effort to improve coexistence between motorized and active transportation will continue, the city says.

Mayor says the goal to minimize traffic

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said the measures are only transitional, and will transform the "Camillien-Houde highway into a park road," she told reporters. 

The goal is to minimize the number of cars crossing over the mountain while maintaining accessibility, she said.

"An important measure will be the bollards along the entire route," she said, making note of the plan to install 460 bollards, designed to prevent U-turns, along a 1.8-kilometre stretch.

"We will adapt," she added. "Obviously, we will see how it goes."

Some of the measures will eventually become permanent, said Plante, who insisted she is unwilling to compromise when it comes to public safety.

Cyclist's death inspires change

Earlier this month, Plante said the road will stay open to private vehicles all year long, but it will no longer serve as a "highway" over Mount Royal.

The mayor's announcement came after the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) recommended it stay open.

The road's controversial closure last summer was a pilot project, launched in the wake of cyclist Clément Ouimet's death in 2017.

He was killed when he collided with an SUV making an illegal U-turn near the lookout at the northeast end of Camillien-Houde.

For cyclists Virginie Paquin and Hélène Girard, the measures could go even further to ensure safety. 

"After everything that happened, I was expecting measures that were more innovative and went further. I expected no cars on the mountain," Paquin said.

Girard said the measures are an improvement, but "the fewer cars there are, the better."

Montreal drivers complained that closing the road caused more traffic headaches in the city. 

"I felt that it was something that was thrown at us and not really thought out properly," said Mario Rinaldi, who was driving on Camillien-Houde Wednesday. 

Rinaldi, whose job requires him to drive, says traffic calming measures on Mount Royal are better than completely cutting access to drivers.